It depends on what stage in the new authors career that they are in to determine how much social media time is necessary. A new unpublished writer, who is working on their first novel will not need much Social Media time at all, if any. Sure, that writer could create an author page, enlist followers, and try to generate excitement for a (first novel, mind you) so everyone will also be taking a big grain of salt, if they listen at all.
The *earliest* point that an author should start on the Social Media bandwagon is after the release of the first novel. Why would you market before you have a product to sell?
And then, of course, comes the questions about using Social Media for Independent Authors. Where does the balance come? How much is too much? Or how little is too little?
Social Media time will grow and expand on its own, in congruent with your Author Career. A properly managed Facebook page can be a mirror of the author's career. It's a lot more than paid promotions to gather likes - it's also analyzing the posts to see how well the author connects with his or her audience.
How many likes are non-promoted posts receiving? How many comments and posts to page are there?
That is how one can tell whether an audience is engaged or not. An audience that is not engaged is most likely bought through Facebook likes, however, that's ok. Everyone needs to start somewhere, and once an author or brand has the means to promote and get likes that way, I am all for it. Because more likes on a page says to a potential person who is browsing the page, that, if there are a lot of likes, there must be something good about it, right?
But diving deeper into the page, beyond the likes, to see the engagement, is where one can really tell if the author is successful or not. The first step is having current followers liking individual posts. Are they at least reading your posts? If they like it, they like what you are posting, and care to some degree. Analyze your posts that way.
Are they commenting? Great! Any comments, positive or negative, should be welcome. They are engaged!
But what about the writer? Can't managing Social Media be a full time job?
It sure can. I know people who have been hired at 40-hour per week jobs simply managing Social Media sites for a company. So where does the writer find the balance?
It's in #Writestorm. And I will tell you all about it in my next post. Enjoy your day, everyone.
